Tag Archives: Paarl

The concept is quite brilliant actually. Label your wines with brightly depicted, buxom blondes, brunettes and redheads and watch the bottles fly off the shelf! (I would certainly judge such a wine by its cover.) And that is exactly what Juno Wines did when they commissioned Tertia du Toit to design their distinctive wine labels, honoring women, art and wine.

The tasting room for this all female winery is also a quirky café and the artist’s studio and gallery in Paarl’s Main Street. From still life’s to saints to scantily clad females, the various rooms in this Cape Dutch house are adorned with bright and beautiful art work. And for those less into art and more into attempts at getting balls over and under cross beams, there is a big screen TV too. The menu is modest and uncomplicated and the food is delicious. Old standbys like omelets, sandwiches, focaccias and baguettes from the bakery jostle with traditional South African fare such as boerewors spears and exotic stir fries. The peanut butter prawns with Asian noodles and savoury mince topped rösti with fried egg were particularly good. All the art work is for sale and if you need further retail therapy there is a small selection of clothing as well as a deli. And, of course, all the Juno wines are available for tasting and purchasing.

The venue caters for all types of functions and would be the perfect setting for a bridal shower for a bride with no self esteem issues.

“Holrug gery” is one of my favourite Afrikaans phrases. It means that a subject has been discussed so many times that, if it were a horse, it would’ve had a back like Paris Hilton’s mattress – worn out and ridden till it’s hollow. Fairview might just be one of those subjects. It almost seems to be ubiquitous in the Cape winelands – you can’t but hit it somewhere along the line on a trip there. But with good reason. With a tasting room, shop and deli, restaurant, beautiful views and shady gardens and lots of room for the kids to play and goats to stare at, it is a great place to take the whole family for an afternoon.

The tasting room at Fairview is beautifully appointed with various “pods” with a dedicated host at each so that guests get loads of personal attention. For R25.00 (US$3) you can taste whatever cheeses they have available on the day plus 6 wines which you may choose from their massive selection. The Beryl Back tasting room is a beautiful, private space where, for R60.00 per person, up to 8 guests can enjoy wines paired with cheeses and olive oil. The estate has vineyards in Paarl, the Swartland, Darling and Stellenbosch, so you can get completely plastered whilst pretending that your copious consumption of all the wines is simply an attempt to compare the various terroirs.

If you are a cheesy person, then Fairview is where you should come to die. The selection on offer is just mind boggling and there are constantly new, innovative cheeses to try. Goats’ milk, cows’ milk, washed rind, white rind, blue cheese, cream cheese. It almost reads like a Dr. Seuss book. There are cheeses flavoured with dukkah, lavender, herbs, spices and everything else you could think of to add to a cheese (and some things you never would’ve thought of). The shop & deli offers a cheese only tasting for R12.00. Six to eight Jersey cows’ and goats’ milk cheeses are available for tasting and the selection varies slightly from day to day. Goatshed artisan breads which are baked daily on site, preserves, sauces and other condiments as well as various olive oils are on sale. The Lemon & Lime as well as Red Pepper jelly from Zest are utterly divine! Read the rest of this entry →